Shield's Lady

misjudged the weather again.”
    “My Lady, you’re drenched.” The stout, older woman fussed around Sariana, getting her inside and shutting the doors behind her. Then Letta turned to regard Sariana with an admonishing expression. “When will you learn that you must always take a rainscreen with you during the summer months in Serendipity? By the Lightstorm, just look at you. You’re soaked to the skin. You must go and change immediately.”
    “Yes, Letta, I think I’ll do exactly that.” Sariana started quickly across the wide hall, peeling off her tight jacket as she went. “You’d think I’d have learned my lesson about trusting the weather around here months ago,” she added just under her breath.
    Gryph heard the remark. “What’s the matter, Sariana?” he asked as she strode, dripping, toward where he stood with Luri. “Still having trouble with a few of the local customs? Isn’t our weather tame enough for you?”
    “No, it is not,” Sariana snapped, clearly annoyed at finding him in her path. She glowered at him as she pushed wet hair back off her face. “Your weather is frequently as outrageous, unpredictable and contrary as—” She saw Luri and stopped talking immediately.
    “As the people who live here?” Gryph finished helpfully. “You’ll have to forgive us. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly what an easterner wants, let alone what she needs.”
    He kept his voice pleasant so as not to upset Luri, but he knew Sariana was well aware of the expression in his eyes. He also knew it alarmed her slightly. He nodded, satisfied. At this point he would settle for making any impression at all on her, even if it wasn’t the best. She had been going out of her way to avoid him for the past two days. It irked Gryph, because he had made up his mind to be on his best behavior around her. She seemed determined not to give him any chance at all to impress her. It was impossible to court a woman who went down another hallway in order to avoid greeting him.
    “Don’t waste your valuable time trying to figure out what I want or what I need, Shield,” Sariana advised as she made to step around him. “We’re not paying you for that particular service. Speaking of your services,” she added firmly, “I will expect a progress report from you tomorrow morning. Meet me in my office after breakfast.”
    “You do have a way of putting a man in his place, Sariana,” Gryph made himself say smoothly.
    “Some men need to have their proper place explained to them. Now if you will excuse me, I would like to go to my rooms.” She glanced down and her voice softened miraculously. She broke into a dazzling smile. “Why, hello, Luri. What have you got there?”
    Luri thrust the golden cage toward her. “It’s a present for you, Sariana. A scarlet-toe lizard of your very own. It will keep you company at night.”
    Sariana’s expression was a mixture of puzzlement and delight. “What a beautiful little cage. I’ll bet your cousin Moris did this, didn’t he? It looks like his work.” Automatically Sariana reached out to take the cage from Luri’s hands. “Is the lizard Moris’ work, too? I thought it was Tarla who liked to design reptile brooches. What a beautiful piece of work. I don’t recognize the gems. I’ve never seen such glowing red stones before.” Then she got her first good look at the creature inside the gold filigree. “It’s alive!”
    “Of course it’s alive,” Luri said. “Who wants a fake lizard?”
    “Or a dead one,” Gryph added thoughtfully. He smiled at Sariana when her eyes flashed briefly to his face. Then she looked again at the creature in the cage.
    Gryph had to hand it to her. Sariana barely flinched. Her brilliant smile stayed in place and she never missed a beat as she said to Luri, “What a fabulous lizard. It’s so beautiful it looks as though it had been made in an Avylyn workshop. Why, it’s even got red eyes.”
    Luri was pleased with her response. “It took me a long time to catch it. I had to get up before dawn every morning and go out into the gardens. You have to have just the right bait to catch a scarlet-toe, you see. They only eat certain kinds of leaves. You have to be very quick to get one.”
    Sariana gave Luri an appraising look. “Maybe its wrong to keep it in a cage, Luri. A little creature like this should be free, don’t you think?”
    “Oh, in a few days he’ll bond to you and then you won’t have to keep him in a